The Film Thread (Red Ring not Required) A place for Analog Photography Nuts to Talk

Virto wrote in post #14398784I hear you on the creative funk issue. It's been hard to find time to shoot, let alone time to shoot something other than simple random snaps.

I'm there with you guys as well .

mikeCL wrote in post #14398801everyone keeps saying the foggy cloudy film is because it was not developed long enough?

Thin film (i.e. the *dark* areas on the film aren't that dark) is due to the film not being developed long enough. Foggy film (i.e. where the *clear* areas of the film aren't as light as they should be), on the other hand, is due to the film being exposed to too much radiation. This can happen in one fell dose (e.g. with an airport x-ray scanner) or over a long period of time (with naturally occurring radiation).

Old film fogs - that's probably what happened.

I shot a roll of reasonably old film (exp. maybe 2007 or so?) last week and still got some passable shots, but it's definitely fogged and overexposing by a full stop didn't help as much as I would-have liked.

Tony-S wrote in post #14398739The magenta and yellow channels control contrast on multigrade papers. If that's what you're using (it's what I recommend) then you don't want white light. If you buy graded papers, then you can use white light.

It's a condenser. It makes it more difficult to control contrast, plus imperfections in the negatives, such as scratches and dust, will be amplified with it. I suggest you stick with the diffuser.

Hmm. 24mm. Don't think I've ever seen one of those. As a rule, here are the focal lengths of enlarging lenses for different formats:

DinosaurioAllie wrote in post #14401731I've personally never used multigrade papers with colored light, only white light.

If you've ever used a multigrade paper with a filter, that's colored light. That's how multigrade papers work.

DinosaurioAllie wrote in post #14401731I assume that the projections are much easier to see in a darkroom. I've never used an enlarger with such soft projections as that with a diffuser. How does it make the contrast easier to control?

What do you mean by "diffuser"? I'm not sure I understand.

DinosaurioAllie wrote in post #14401731I've put in my 35mm negatives with the 24mm lens and it projects just fine. I don't have a 120 negative carrier so I'm not quite sure how those project.

If you see a comparison between the 24 and 50 - look at the distortion by the focal length. You might notice some softening near the edges if the projection lens isn't stopped down that much.

DinosaurioAllie wrote in post #14401731I've personally never used multigrade papers with colored light, only white light.

Then your prints must be low-contrast. Multigrade papers are sensitive to two wavelengths of light, yellow and magenta. By dialing in those two colors on your color head, or by using a "polycontrast filter set" that has magenta and yellow filters, you control the contrast of the paper from 0 to 5. For instance, with my Beseler 67C dichroic color head, +70M, +15Y (cyan is always at 0 since the paper isn't sensitive to it) gives a contrast grade of about grade 3.5. +70Y, +10M gives a grade of about 1.

I assume that the projections are much easier to see in a darkroom. I've never used an enlarger with such soft projections as that with a diffuser. How does it make the contrast easier to control?

The diffuser along with your dichroic color head allows you to fine tune the contrast for different negatives. Most filter sets are in half-grade increments (0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5). The color head allows you to set many more increments and the diffuser reduces scratches and dust from the negative on the final print.

"Raw" is not an acronym, abbreviation, nor a proper noun; thus, it should not be in capital letters.

Tony-S wrote in post #14402501Then your prints must be low-contrast. Multigrade papers are sensitive to two wavelengths of light, yellow and magenta. By dialing in those two colors on your color head, or by using a "polycontrast filter set" that has magenta and yellow filters, you control the contrast of the paper from 0 to 5. For instance, with my Beseler 67C dichroic color head, +70M, +15Y (cyan is always at 0 since the paper isn't sensitive to it) gives a contrast grade of about grade 3.5. +70Y, +10M gives a grade of about 1.

The diffuser along with your dichroic color head allows you to fine tune the contrast for different negatives. Most filter sets are in half-grade increments (0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5). The color head allows you to set many more increments and the diffuser reduces scratches and dust from the negative on the final print.

How do you figure out the contrast grades of the different settings? Trial and error or is there a website that can help me out?

Just developed and put up a whopping seven rolls of film to my Flickr account. Here's a link to my film set (clicky!) if you want to take a look. The new shots start about mid-way through the twelfth row.

DinosaurioAllie wrote in post #14402722How do you figure out the contrast grades of the different settings? Trial and error or is there a website that can help me out?

They are printed on the package insert that comes with the box of paper. I use Ilford Multigrade IV and those settings are provided. Of course, that's only half the contrast story - the other half is how contrasty are the negatives. The best way to determine that is to use a densitometer, but they are really expensive. However, you can get an idea of how much contrast is in a negative by examining them on a light table, and with experience you learn where your starting point for the paper is. After that, you just fine tune until you get the contrast that you want.

"Raw" is not an acronym, abbreviation, nor a proper noun; thus, it should not be in capital letters.

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